AMERICAN CUSTOMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 229, 26 March 1912, Page 4

AMERICAN CUSTOMS.

Some novel features of life in the United States were observed by Mr. W. MeLeod, managing director of the Sydney Bulletin, who has been on a world tour during the past ten months. On his return home a few days ago ho told an interviewer that he had seen something of the "quick lunch habit" and had found the large restaurants in the principal cities very interesting. "There is a huge menu," says Mr. MeLeod, "and the food you order is cooked especially for vou, not merely warmed up again. At some of the cafes the waiters take quite a friendly interest in you while you are eating. They will come up to you and say, 'Well, folks'—a great term this 'folks' in America—'well, folks, is everything to your satisfaction? Are you quite pleased ? Hope you'll come in and see us again.'" In San Francisco Mr. MeLeod visited a "cafTateru," a restaurant which has evolved new methods of dining. "A long counter," he said, "runs down one side of the cafe, with a passageway in front of it. AVhcn a customer enters lie takes up a little tray with forks and spoons on it, marches along beside the counter, and selects from any joint he likes in the collection. The counter is heated from underneath, and behind it are a number of attendants, men neatly dressed in white, to take your order and carve for you. You pass on with your tray to another part of the counter, where the vegetables are, stf on to sweets and coffee.- iWhen you have a good supply of things on your tray you show it to a lady cashier a,,t the.end of the safe, pay her, and sit down and eat at a little table, passing out afterwards by another ,passage.?,... Someth» "fashionable" restaurants furnish music With meals in a very unconventional way. a singer suddenly rising in the middle of the. room, or a comic singer, entering the door and singing his song as he walks across the room. In spite of the novelty of the customs he encountered, Mr. MeLeod satisfied himself that American restaurants perform their principal dutv exceedingly well.